Re: Transportation of Wipes for Removable Contamination

["Don_Jordan" <Don_Jordan@fpm.uchicago.edu>]

The ref. for the 70 Bq/gram (0.002 uCi/g) definition of radioactive material
is 49CFR173.403, Definitions.  If this duplicates other responses, my apologies.

Clearly one can use an inexpensive portable survey instrument to look for
most of the nuclides
mentioned, with a lower limit of detection adequate to permit transport as
non-radioactive material.
(If you can measure the wipe with the survey instrument, why transport it
back for analysis?)  The problem,
of course is tritium.  

One solution would be to take along vials with scint. fluid already in it.
This additional weight would allow you to transport much higher activities
than just the wipe alone as non-radioactive material, while maintaining a
reasonable claim to having the radioactive material "essentially uniformly
distributed".  I suspect that DOT established the 70 Bq/g lowerr limit
specifically to avoid
regulating manifestly trivial quantities of hazmat, and would interpret this
rule rather generously for 
such obvious laboratory samples - but of couse, I cannot speak for DoT; on a
slow day someone might decide
that the fate of Western civilization depends on stopping such abuses.  
Don Jordan	
The University of Chicago	
Office of Radiation Safety
Zoology Building Room 11
1101 East 57th Street
Chicago,  Illinois  60615
Tel.	773-702-6299
Fax	773-702-4008
email Don_Jordan@fpm.uchicago.edu